Buffy

Thanks in part to the recommendation of .83 rider, SurlyKat, who’s gone on record as saying she likes “all things Buffy,” my family has, over the last few months, been working our way through seasons one, two, and now three of the much-beloved and Emmy award-winning television program, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It’s the perfect thing to watch right before bedtime since, not only is it exciting and creepy, but almost always leaves you hanging so that typically, we also get to have another little argument about whether we should watch just one more before lights out.

Still, I can hardly think of a better program to present role-models for my pre-adolescent child to emulate. Although naturally, as a parent, I hope the kid turns out most like Willow—supersmart, funny, loyal, and at least so far, chaste—there’s not one of the main teenage characters—even the snooty cheerleader-type Cordelia—who doesn’t have qualities of which a dad wouldn’t be proud.

My introduction to the series came last year, when I was preparing to team-teach a course combining physics and philosophy; I read the book The Physics of the Buffyverse, thinking that there might be some fun stuff to explore in our class. It turned out the class got canceled for lack of interest (imagine that!), but I remained intrigued enough by some of the episodes described in the book that I was eager to see what the show was like.

It’s certainly one of the better things I’ve seen on TV—especially on DVD without commercials—and while there is some variation in the quality of episodes—the ones written by show creator Josh Whedon or staff writer Marti Noxon strike me as the strongest—most of them are pretty much worth watching, even though it’s often my habit to leave during the middle and finish up the dishes before returning for the thrilling finale.

We’ve got three-plus more seasons to go; after that, I guess it’s on to Battlestar Gallactica.